CRC funded reports

2007/08

Summaries of these reports are given below. These reports are held by the Australian Institute of Criminology's
JV Barry Library and are available on inter-library loan. For full bibliographic information on any
report, search the Library's Catalogue.

This research project was commenced to review and revise John Walker's 1995
report, Estimates of the extent of money laundering in and through
Australia. The 2004-05 study was also intended to consider money laundering
and terrorist financing linkages within the Asia-Pacific region.

Since the 1995 report was published by AUSTRAC, there has been little work done
to quantify money laundering at national levels. The 1995 report considered a
variety of sources and suggested that between AUD $1.0 and $4.5 billion per
annum were generated by crime in Australia and laundered either in Australia or
elsewhere, with a most likely figure of around AUD $3.5 billion, with the bulk
of this quantum generated by fraud and then drugs.

The 2004-05 study built on the 1995 Walker report, again involving surveys of
Australian law enforcement officials, overseas financial intelligence units, and
researchers in Australia and overseas; a literature review; and analysis of
official statistics, including data held by AUSTRAC. These data provided a range
of estimates, which enabled the derivation of a likely range of the quantum of
money laundering in or through Australia. The results suggest that crime in
Australia generates between AUD $2.8 and $6.3 billion, with a likely figure of
AUD $4.5 billion. Fraud and drugs are still believed to be the major generators
of proceeds of crime. This is well below the range of $14.7 to $36.7 billion
that would equate to the IMF's often quoted range of two to five percent of
global GDP. Also, hard to quantify shadow economy activities and transfer
pricing techniques that may involve underpayment of tax, cannot be readily
estimated and could increase this figure.

The study found some areas for further study, particularly noting the need for
further research at national levels, the need for more comprehensive and
reliable data, and observed that there may be value in conducting this type of
research more frequently than once every 10 years.

Juvenile Diversion and Indigenous offenders

This study was motivated by a concern that Indigenous juvenile offenders were
not receiving the benefits of diversionary schemes. Previous research had
suggested that Indigenous offenders are diverted at a significantly lower rate
than non-Indigenous offenders. This research, however, had not compared rates of
diversion after adjusting for offender characteristics and other factors that
can be taken into account when making the decision to divert.

The aim of the present study was to assess how much of the difference in
rates of diversion between Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders remained
after these factors had been taken into account. In pursuit of this aim, a
series of logistic regression models were developed to see whether the
likelihood of diversion was influenced by an individual's Indigenous status,
after controlling for a range of offence and offender characteristics. Diversion
was modelled as both a dichotomous variable (diversion/non-diversion) and as an
ordered variable (in order: Caution, Conference, Court). The data to construct
the models was obtained from Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA) and
New South Wales (NSW). Diversion was defined as either a police or court
referred conference or a formal police caution. Non-diversion was defined as a
court appearance.

A population based study examining the impact of interpersonal violence victimisation on mental health

Interpersonal violence victimisation (interpersonal violence) is a
significant public health issue both in terms of its impact on the community and
the health care system at a national and international level. A
population-based, retrospective study of interpersonal violence in Western
Australia was undertaken using the Western Australian Data Linkage System. This
is a unique inter-linking system of hospital and other heath records which was
developed in Western Australia. It systematically links administrative health
data such as the morbidity, mortality and mental health data. The Data Linkage
System was used to identify every individual in WA who was admitted to hospital
or killed as a result of an injury inflicted by others. This information was
linked to any past admission for a mental illness. The results of this research
have provided a thorough description of the size and nature of interpersonal
violence in Western Australia from 1990 to 2004. Secondly, it has aided in the
identification of pertinent risk factors associated with violence victimisation,
both in the population as a whole and specifically among people with mental
illness. Thirdly, the health system costs of interpersonal violence
victimisation were calculated and the share of these costs attributable to
patients with mental illness.

Parents as prisoners: maintaining the parent-child relationship

Rosemary Sheehan and Gregory Levine
Criminology Research Council grant (39/05-06)

Children of parents who are or have been in prison often endure considerable disruption in
their care, receive negligible material support and experience difficulty maintaining family
ties. They are a uniquely vulnerable group of children, who may come into contact with child
protection and welfare agencies and become the subject of child protection proceedings in
children's courts. The children present particular challenges to legal and welfare decision
makers in relation to maintaining relationships between the children and their parents. Little
is known about this group of children, about the impact on them of their parents' offending
and imprisonment and the ways, if any, that child welfare services and children's courts
respond to their distinctive circumstances.

This report describes the study undertaken in the Melbourne Children's Court from June to
December 2006, that set out to identify the extent to which children involved in child
protection proceedings had parents who were currently or previously in prison, or were
awaiting sentencing. It sought also to examine the impact of parental imprisonment on these
children, to examine their care histories to discover what factors impact on their stability of
care, and to propose ways the court and welfare systems should respond to these children's
special circumstances. There were 156 children identified by magistrates as meeting these
criteria during the study period. Data was gathered about the child protection proceedings,
parental involvement with the criminal justice system, the child's age and family
composition, care arrangements, information about their health and education, and about any
support services and interventions involved with the child and family.